Former Employee - Anonymous employee WatchMojo Employee Review

Dear former Employee, A media/content company's greatest asset are its employees. Since we cover pop culture & entertainment, we are one of the rare businesses where a lack of experience isn't frowned upon. We tend to recruit people whose skill sets do not generally lead to full-time salaried work. As such, to ensure we serve our young audiences well, we recruit a lot of young recruits and deficit-finance our programming. As we are overwhelmed with resumes and CVs, we offer competitive benefits in terms of vacation time and health benefits (no benefits, really? thankfully you've never had a long term injury), but when hiring people with little to no experience or out of school, indeed we favor "missionaries over mercenaries." We're arguably also one of the few content companies who not only have so many full-time employees who are writers, editors, creatives also participate in the company's profit share program! At a time when media companies are transitioning full timers into contract workers, or laying people off, I'm proud to announce that we have never had a single layoff. Not mentioned in your critique is the reality that all original 5 founders remain, we have very low turnover and most freelancers rely on us for their full time live employment; that reflects most people's job satisfaction wrt overall compensation we provide in terms of work/life/play balance. But by hiring young and inexperienced staff, sometimes we recruit individuals who think they are better than others, who refuse to take constructive feedback when they fail to meet expectations (for the record, there's no punishment or quotas at the company, we set targets and accommodate when they're not hit). I'm unsure if you think I'm a dictator or in selectively venting to a significant other they think I'm one, but by most entrepreneur standards, I'm tame. But yes, I don't tolerate people i) refusing to learn and improve when they aren't meeting expectations, or ii) who think they are better than others/have clique mindset despite no track record to speak of, then so be it, I can live with that label. However, the fact that our editorial is driven by a fairly democratic suggestion tool & employee-consensus does negate that label/accusation, so perhaps that "dictator" sentiment may be a reflection of your ideas just not being as good as others' in the company. Even then, in ten+ years of running WatchMojo, I've rarely raised my voice at anyone's direction, but yes, I do get upset when the Product or Processes are affected by one's lack of focus or professionalism. I run the business passionately as if I ran a sports team but treat everyone like family. After the diplomatic communications & constructive criticism goes in one ear and out the other, the harsh reality is sometimes, "someone's gotta do the yelling" because the rest of the team is working passionately and recognizing the opportunity, and the laggards hurt the organization, complaining but failing to offer solutions. So believe it or not, a true leader steps up and calls it like it is. Most people welcome that, you may not. But no one's obligated to be a member of our team. Anyone that has spent any time in any other organization will attest that we have a very diplomatic, laid back culture. And are you sure you worked at WatchMojo? The Montreal HQ? I personally urge balance and the office is pretty much a ghost town past 6pm and weekends... Yes, occasionally people may have projects to complete but this whole complaint about "work around the clock, over time, nights, weekends" is patently false. Let me finalize by stating that the fact that experienced, seasoned veterans from outside approached to join and choose to work with me/us, turning down other opportunities at our US-based competitors again speaks for itself. We do promote from within, we hired students out of school who today are VPs and managers. But if you were overlooked for a position that went to an outsider, then it may worthwhile to also look in the mirror and ask yourself why instead of blaming others. To conclude, I appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback, I only wish you would have done so in person so we can actually have a conversation. You know my inbox/door is always open and available. You're welcome to vent and discuss what you wish your future trajectory to be and as others have grown, you will too.